Top 10 Worst Movie De-Aging Effects

Script written by Thomas O'Connor

Top 10 Worst De-Aging in Movies

CGI isn’t a virtual Fountain of Youth just yet. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down the Top 10 Worst De-Aging in Movies.

For this list, we’re looking at the times that CGI was used to turn back the clock on actors and actresses to….less than perfect effect. The technology is getting better, but it’s still got a long way to go.

#10: Patrick Stewart & Ian McKellen

“X-Men: The Last Stand” (2006)

The first entry on our list is also the first major use of this technology, and while it’s far from the worst, it’s easy to see that this was an early attempt at the effect. Before James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender took over playing the younger versions of the characters, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan were digitally de-aged for a flashback scene in “X-Men: The Last Stand”. Like a lot of later entries, the effect is a little disconcerting, with both actors looking mostly like they’ve had some wrinkles airbrushed off. Sir Patrick was also de-aged for a cameo in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, and the effect was similarly uncomfortable.

#9: Temuera Morrison

“Aquaman” (2019)

This big-budget DC spectacle has no shortage of fantastical CGI creations, but there’s one effect that’s even harder to believe than the giant sea-monsters. For the film’s opening scene, New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison got the de-aging treatment to portray the young father of the hero. The effect doesn’t quite land, and Morrison’s hair and teeth in particular just don’t look natural. We can’t speak for Queen Atlanna, but if this strange looking sight was our first glimpse of a surface-dweller, we’d probably high-tail it back to the ocean and take our chances with the monsters from The Trench.

#8: Dwayne Johnson

“Central Intelligence” (2016)

Ok, we’re gonna add a sizable asterisk to this one given that the film in question is a comedy, and the effect is definitely intended to be weird and off-putting. That having been said, the CGI recreation of a younger, out of shape version of The Rock’s character is just too creepy looking not to mention. The famously buff actor appears with his face CGI’d onto the body of a less-than-muscular actor, and is put through some digital de-aging. Watching the character get humiliated in front of his classmates would be bad enough even without how awkward and uncomfortable the effect makes the entire sequence. In comparison, Kevin Hart’s de-aging is pretty believable.

#7: Arnold Schwarzenegger

“Terminator: Genisys” (2015)

The “Terminator” franchise is all about going back and re-writing the past, something this entry did in spades by returning to an iconic moment from the first film. In the scene, we once again see Arnie’s iconic T-800 arrive in 1980’s LA and confront some nearby punks. Rather than recycle footage from the original film, a younger Arnie is recreated using CGI. In a way, this is actually the closest that the Terminator has ever truly looked to a creepy robot draped in human skin, with dead, lifeless eyes and subtly “off” facial movements. But we doubt that that’s what the filmmakers were really going for. Also hey, wasn’t one of those punks originally Bill Paxton?

#6: Orlando Bloom

“The Hobbit” trilogy (2012-14)

In the mythology of JRR Tolkein’s Middle Earth, Elves are ageless, divine beings possessed of an ethereal and otherworldly beauty. Under normal circumstances, this isn’t that hard to pull off onscreen, but Orlando Bloom’s return to the franchise presented a problem given that the actor had visibly aged. To return his visage to an Elven youthfulness, CGI was used for his scenes in the films, giving his face a strange sheen and a glow that, while definitely otherworldly, probably wasn’t what Tolkein had in mind. Legolas also does enough gravity-defying acrobatics over the course of the movie that his whole character just feels like one big unfinished effect.

#5: The Losers Club

“It Chapter Two” (2019)

The first installment in the epic two-part adaptation of Stephen King’s legendary novel proved once and for all that the stigma around child actors is about as dead as poor Georgie Denbrough. But there’s still one problem with child actors that the sequel couldn’t solve: they age. While the second film put the focus largely on the adult versions of the Losers Club during their rematch with Pennywise, some flashback scenes were added that required the original actors to return. This proved problematic, as a few of them had noticeably grown since filming the first movie, and the CGI used to return them to a younger appearance scared some viewers almost as much as It itself.

#4: Clark Gregg

“Captain Marvel” (2019)

One of our favorite surprises in this MCU epic was the return of Clark Gregg’s Agent Phil Coulson, a stalwart SHIELD agent who helped tie together the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Except while Samuel L. Jackson got an absolutely incredible digital makeover for his starring role, Gregg’s de-aging clearly took the backseat. The Son of Coul’s transformation just doesn’t hold a candle to Fury’s, with a strange looking hairline and rubbery facial movements, made all the more noticeable in comparison to his boss. Our fan theory is that this younger Coulson is a Skrull who isn’t as good at shapeshifting as some of his friends. Keep practicing, buddy!

#3: Sylvester Stallone

“Grudge Match” (2013)

Digitally de-aging a movie star is a hard thing to pull off at the best of times, and scenes that require a lot of movement make the effect way harder to accomplish convincingly. You know what typically involves a whole lot of movement? A boxing match. For a flashback scene in this 2013 film, a CGI recreation of a young Sly Stallone faces off against a similarly de-aged Robert De Niro. The effect looks like, well, exactly that: an effect, an unconvincing CGI mask of Stallone’s face haphazardly slapped on a younger man’s body. De Niro also looks off, but Sly definitely got the short end of the stick here.

#2: Johnny Depp

“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” (2017)

The “Pirates of the Carribean” franchise has brought some truly terrifying CGI monsters to life….and the legions of deep-sea monsters and undead pirates are kinda scary too. We can probably all agree that the “Pirates” movies got kinda rocky as time went on, and Johnny Depp’s creepy, CGI face in the fifth installment was probably the final nail in the coffin for many viewers. It’s like the total package for bad de-aging: creepy, unnatural skin, lifeless eyes, and an overall sense that you’re watching something artificial and unnatural. Thankfully the scene doesn’t last long, but the lingering shots of the de-aged Depp still haunt our dreams.

#1: Jeff Bridges

“Tron: Legacy” (2010)

Way back in 2010, digital de-aging had been used minimally for cameos and flashbacks. But for the sequel to cult-favorite sci-fi flick “Tron”, the technology was used far more to create a major recurring character: a de-aged version of The Dude himself. The film takes place entirely within a digital landscape, and almost every character outside of hero Sam is technically a digital being. But that doesn’t help the fact that this early attempt at putting the effect front and center just does not work, giving the film’s villain an unnatural appearance so deep in the Uncanny Valley that he can probably see bedrock.